A New Shade
by MistressSara
Summary: Post - A Tale of Two Cities After helping Joan, Peggy goes in search of the Avon samples. Her lipstick of choice provokes a reaction she didn't expected. Peggy/Ted


Peggy was quick to close her door, happy to be back in her office, alone. Joan was in the clear, for the moment at least. They both managed to escape relatively unscathed, Peggy had even managed to snag a few Avon samples.

It had been a long day at the end of a very long week, slowly moving towards the end of her rope with Ted. He was treating her like a yo-yo. Push away, pull back, push, pull. The man couldn't make up his mind and Peggy's emotions were taking the brunt of his indecision. It seemed as though they couldn't even manage a friendship any more, their working relationship was distant, he acted as though looking at her would somehow break him. He wanted her but couldn't stand to be near her? Or had he changed his mind? He didn't want her anymore and was embarrassed to have interpreted lust as love.

With a sigh, Peggy sat at her desk to inspect the samples she had managed to wrestle away from the secretaries. Her favorite eye shadow, a tube of mascara, and a matched set of lip liner and lip stick.

_Rum Raisin_

Not her usual color. Opening the container she realized just how dark the shade was. A major departure from her usual reds and pinks. The shade was lust personified, somewhere between red and purple. She had a mental flash of an old black and white film she had found in Abe's belongings, a old stag film from the 50s that had belonged to his father. They had watched it together, for fun, the black and white film left the girls looking as though their lips were painted black instead of the red she suspected they were.

Maybe this was the change she was in need of. Abe was gone, Ted didn't want her, maybe she should paint her lips a deep burgundy and let Joan take her to one of those dark bars to meet an eligible young man to spend a weekend with. That might do her a world of good. A weekend with a man that she didn't have to care about in the morning, that she wouldn't have to see on a daily basis to have her feelings stepped on. It was all Ted's fault, he brought it out, put words to what they were both secretly thinking. He couldn't keep calm when their hands touched, when she smiled at him and now it was some how her fault. He aired his feelings and made an effort to move on, she was left exposed and hurt.

Pulling her cabinet open, Peggy examined herself in the small mirror that hung on the inside door. The red was too bright, too cheerful, mocking her mood as of late. Wiping off her old color with a tissue, she took the liner to her now bare lips and traced the curves of her mouth.

She never liked her mouth as a teenager, she considered it her worst feature until her first kiss came. Men liked kissing her, liked the soft, plump lower lip that almost always ended up being nipped at. The men who just wanted sex liked to see what she could do with her mouth, the men who liked what she had to say were always amazed to both hear and see what she was capable of. She always figured that Ted would be the latter. He would probably marvel at the way she could make creative pitches and then turn around strike an articulate man mute with a strong kiss. Then there was the little trick she picked up from Duck, who always liked to undo her dress using his mouth to ease the zipper down her back.

Maybe she should stop into his office on the way out tonight, her lips perfectly painted in a tawdry color. She could change into a low cut dress and those pretty textured tights she saved a sample of from Topaz. Dab on a bit of perfume before popping in to make sure it was alright to leave early. That would certainly force him into action one way or another, he would have to decide if he could handle the thought of her going out with another man. Let him sit alone in his office and imagine what the other man might be doing with her, how he might remove her tights in a hurry or what her pretty painted lips might be wrapped around…

"Oh…" Peggy gasped in surprise, looking over the finished effect. She smirked slightly at the dark color, how much more extreme it looked next to her pale skin. Before she could remove the stain from her mouth her office door opened and Ted strolled in while looking down at the papers in his hands.

"Hey Peggy, do you have those…" His words fell silent as he caught a glimpse of her. "Wha… what are you…"

"Avon samples." She smiled, picking up the liner and touching up a spot she missed. "What do you think?"

"It's… it's different…" He stammered.

"I think I like it."

He simply stared at her, his vision blocking out everything other than her mouth.

"Might try it out for my date tomorrow."

"You've got a date? Isn't that kind of soon… you know, after Abe?"

"It's been a rough couple of weeks. It will be nice to just go out and have a bit of fun without all that messiness attached." She sighed, closing her cabinet and turning back to her desk. "What was it you needed?"

"Oh, uh, the ideas for Sunkist… you're going to leave that lipstick on?"

"Why?"

Ted glanced behind him, moving to close and lock her office door before hurrying next to her desk and pulling her to her feet. He held her close, their faces almost touching as he stared down at her with a dark expression.

"Ted!"

"It's distracting me, all right?"

"Don't look at me then."

"That isn't an option."

"Rather inappropriate to have these thoughts about your protégé, I thought you changed your mind, put all of that behind you? I shouldn't worry because there's someone really great out there for me. I can't bend to your whims, Ted."

Peggy suddenly found herself perched on the edge of her desk, Ted standing between her legs as his mouth moved hard against hers. This wasn't like their first kiss in his old office, this was different, full of pent up passion. He quickly coaxed her lips apart, his tongue seeking out hers. It didn't even matter that the perfectly applied lipstick was now smeared across both of their mouths. Though she suspected it would matter when he would have to leave her office. And that wouldn't be his only embarrassment, she realized as his pelvis rocked against her.

"Ted…" She gasped trying to pull back from him. "You don't want to do this…"

"I want to, we shouldn't do this, but I want to…" His tone was desperate as he tried to push her collar out of the way to have access to her neck.

"Not here. Not like this." She whispered, pushing against his shoulder but letting her forehead rest against his. "Think about it, I don't want you to do this in a rush just to regret it the next day. Come back tonight before we leave, if you still want to… well, I know that I want to."

"Peggy…" He groaned quietly.

"You're going to need to wash your face." She cut him off, handing him a tissue. "It's a good color on you."

"You're a good color on me."

"We'll see."

With one last look he left, covering what was left of the Rum Raisin lipstick with a tissue as he hurried to the men's room. She wouldn't see him tonight. His better angels would shout down his lustful intentions. But one thing was clear, he definitely wanted her. And she was definitely going to keep Rum Raisin handy.


End file.
